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Since CES, Microsoft has been running a campaign to raise awareness for their Windows Phone lineup called “Smoked by Windows Phone.” It is a challenge of sorts that asks you to enter your Android or other phone into a battle with a Windows Phone to see if it can beat it at simple every day tasks. Tasks could be to find directions to a near by 4-star restaurant or snap a picture and upload it to Facebook. Fun, right? Not so much for the owner of a Galaxy Nexus who stopped by his local Microsoft store this weekend to take the challenge.

Within the last week, Microsoft upped the bounty for their “Smoked” challenge, offering up a $1000 special edition laptop to those that could beat Windows Phone or the opportunity to trade in your current phone for a Windows Phone should you lose. The owner of Skattertech took his G-Nex in and won, according to his standards, but not so much according to the Microsoft store’s standards.

What was his test? Once he got to the front of the line of people taking the challenge, he was asked to power down his phone and then back up again to kill off background tasks. Then the task itself was for him to display weather on his phone from 2 different cities faster than the Windows Phone. Since he had disabled his lockscreen and had two widgets on his home screen showing weather in 2 different cities, all it took was the press of a button and he was done. The Windows Phone user on the other hand had to swipe away a lock screen, causing her to be a split second later than our friend with the Nexus.

So he won? Nope. He was told that he lost because the Windows Phone “displays the weather right there,” which I’m not even sure is an actual reason. A manager came over after a handful of questions from our Android friend and was told that he lost because he needed to display weather from 2 different cities in 2 different states, something that he claims was not made clear up front. He was never given his prize.

Update: Microsoft is doing the right thing now. Ben Rudolph, who runs the challenge in the video below, announced on Twitter that they will indeed award Skattertech with the $1000 laptop and a Windows Phone.

I travel a lot and often keep the weather where I am and the weather back home.

http://profile.yahoo.com/H2YA2XAMVYMOUX4PVGUSU5N2LM Georgia

The other city is where my girlfriend is!

Destroythanet

ICS FTW!!

Prime7

Pretty clever how the prize is a Windows Phone (and if you lose, you also get a Windows Phone).

So…either way, you lose because you have to take a Windows Phone.

Rodeojones000

Actually, winning the challenge gets you a $1000 special edition laptop.

James Lucas II

All of those android people don’t have core apps installed or widgets loaded lol they could win easily. Like places or just knowing how to use upload to facebook from the photo instead of going through the app. Bad comparison they were not power users vs a trained windows phone rep lol!

Lakra43

How about instead of them choosing the task, have the challenger choose the task. That gives the challenger the advantage that they have, and if they are so confident with their phone, they should have no problem with that.

HornKirsten14

my best friend’s mom got paid $14955 the previous week. she makes money on the internet and bought a $359800 condo. All she did was get fortunate and work up the guide exposed on this web page >>>> LazyCash1.com

Tim_Horton

Good thing the challenge wasn’t who can BSOD the fastest or he’d have had no contest.

Josh Groff

😉

Droidzilla

When you and another troll get together to make it look like you’re random commenters, be sure to also “like” the post you reply to. It makes it look more credible.

Josh Groff

I just thought the comment was genuinely funny.

Sam

1st Place: Windows Phone
2nd Place: Two Windows Phones

Manny

Why do they call it the Windows 7 Phone? Because it’ll never get more than 7% of the market share!

http://twitter.com/redbullcat Phil Oakley

Windows Phone 7, actually, but hey.

It’s a good OS. Nothing wrong with it. Microsoft are just being arrogant.

http://www.ashevilletechnologyservices.com Dan Brown

Good thing they didn’t have to make a phone call on it.

6895533

my galaxy nexus will smoke him at taking a picture and uploading it to facebook ill take the picture faster then he can blink his eye and with verizon lte ill uploaded faster then what he takes to come his hair, then i can say smoked by my nexus B**CH

ckeegan

Exactly, there is no way he could take a picture and upload to facebook or any social media outlet faster than I can with the galaxy nexus. at least not with the method he showed in the video. not even counting upload time.

twohawks

Lower your photo resolution. If you try to upload a full res photo you will get smoked. I’m sure Ben’s photo resolution is set to create the smallest .jpg possible for fast uploading.

ckeegan

It you watch the video, the “challenge” ends when the upload is in progress, not complete. There is no way from screen off to uploading a Windows Phone can beat the Galaxy Nexus if the Galaxy Nexus user knows what they’re doing.

CORYK333

I dont know about the “comb” his hair part, he’s bald!!!

MKader17

I think that was part of the joke.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XBKPWPYFJFKPRFB77EPVEIZVZ4 m

Ben Rudolph,

please video & shoot the laptop and windows phone MS gave you….then post it on youtube.

Dliuzzo110

They should makethe two people switch phones and give the prize to the winner not the faster phone

I’m A Tester

I like that idea!

MKader17

x2. Nice idea.

Mpineda25

Imagine if we didnt have android or ios and had no other option but windows phones…I’d rather use two cans and a long rope..Windows phones suck !!!!

Reyztec

i wonder if they are still doning this. id love to go to there store now and give them a challenge. I bet my rezound would smoke that pos.

Skytile

From what I remember, the competition is running until the 29th.

MrEnglish

Bollocks. Phone to phone or app to app. Are they comparing the hardware, the software, the user familiarity with the device…what?

It’s not really a matter of how fast the phone is…it’s how fast the user in this stupid marketing scheme. Makes no sense MS…

FusionSaint

Sorry, I was assuming that anyone who rooted, and modded their android phone would have known their phone well enough to beat any MS jockey they put up…

http://twitter.com/LucasNJohnson Lucas Johnson

I think this is rather silly.. It’s like giving a sword to a huge buff guy and saying your sword will break before his does. of course it will; he’s a trained professional. the guy in the commercial spent the last month doing these things so he’d have a few seconds advantage over everyone else. If any normal customer were to try on both phones they’d be much faster on their own phone because they’d be like “How the heck do i work this windows phone.”

true story

Cooperma

Windows Phone has beat a lot of Galaxy Nexus’ since the contests inception at CES. However…if a person knows exactly what they want to do…they could probably game the test just like he did.

PC_Tool

Who gamed what, here??

Cooperma

Sorry for the delay! Been in meetings all day. Not implying he cheated, hell i would do the same thing. Gaming might be the wrong word either. What i was saying is he knew what challenge he wanted and he pre configured his phone to do so, even going so far as to remove the lock screen. Not saying its wrong, just saying unlike some of the iphones 4s’ and the Galaxy Nexus this dude knew what he wanted to do, and went out and made it happen.

PC_Tool

I honestly do not see any indication that he knew what “his” test would be prior to reaching his place in line. As I read it, he happened to luck out…as it were.

Where are you reading that he had foreknowledge of what “test” he would be up against?

Cooperma

I havent checked the newest rules…but at CES, they talked about what they frequently did with their phones, deciding on one that worked for both. Maybe they changed that portion…

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25802390 Michael Sullivan

normal every day users are not in any sort of “race” to get a task done. This proves nothing but a guy who knows exactly what hes looking for an how to do it vs. a normal user who doesnt care how fast something is done, just that it gets done in the end. I dont care if my GNex takes 10 seconds or 30 seconds to upload a pic to facebook.. as long as it does it I’m happy. This commercial/contest really shows nothing outstanding or out of the ordinary.

PC_Tool

I call bull.

If you had two G’Nex devices and one did most tasks 10-20 seconds faster, you’d be all over the faster one. Don’t try telling anyone speed doesn’t matter. It’s why most folks think “Speed Limit” means “Speed Minimum,” and why Moore’s Law exists.

In almost all aspects of technology: Faster is better.

Dliuzzo110

When was the last time you had to take a pic and upload it to facebook in 3 seconda? Chances are youre gonna take a bunch of pics and then upload the best at a later point.

MKader17

Well of course everytime you take a picture you aren’t going to race to get it on Facebook, but the point for Windows marketing scheme is that you can get on with your life faster there’s not any way to casually compare this to other phones without making it into a race.

Josh Groff

If I go 20 in a 35, I can get pulled over. Limit pretty much means maximum, and having no lower limit implied, tell me how that makes sense. 😉

Josh Groff

Lets see which uploads to Dropbox faster. 😉

ckeegan

or launches Angry Birds Space faster…

I’m A Tester

Hah! Is ABS even available on Windows Phone?!

ckeegan

No, Rovio basically said it wasn’t worth their time.

sc0rch3d

the contest is rigged in favor shaved head guy. he knows exactly the things to tap and where they will be on the screen. you’re asking an everyday user to do something that you know how to do easily, but not necessarily with great speed (speed of user that is, not phone speed)

http://profile.yahoo.com/H2YA2XAMVYMOUX4PVGUSU5N2LM Georgia

Should be fair as shaved head guy is familiar with his phone as the android user is familair with his phone. Shaved guy does not know which phone he may be racing against. The contestant has come in for this test too. Shaved head is asking about fairly simple tasks and very common tasks to do. I would guess 95% of the facebook users upload pics from their phones and directions are used probably by 90 – 95% of the phone users.

Yes I know shaved head is up to the task but its also just MARKETING. Android would have done it if they had thought of it first. Hmmmmm…..why no iphone?

Microsoft started dominating the smart phone market? You mean they got Blackberry’d.

Qqq

Samsung had nothing to do with this, Microsoft got owned by the dev community.

http://twitter.com/Kanestapler Kane Stapler

Actually nothing he was doing required being rooted. So it was Samsung/Google. Not the developers.

EC8CH

Next up on the Smoked by a Windows Phone Challenge…. eating crow

Jcdenton771

So all Windows Phone can do is upload pictures to facebook and get weather from 2 different cities in 2 different states at the same time?

MKader17

Its a great idea by Microsoft, but displaying two cities of weather? Really? If I set something like that up and knew all the questions, I could beat another G-Nex or any other phone all day long as well.

I hope some good comes out of it and Android looks into how to doing these tasks faster, though most of them are pretty damn fast now.

SchwannyT

This is a perfect example of how MS has no idea what people use their phone for. Its been a long time since I was in 2 different cities in 2 different states at the same time…..

http://profile.yahoo.com/H2YA2XAMVYMOUX4PVGUSU5N2LM Georgia

Just take a trip my friend. Its nice knowing you’ll be headed to rainy 20 degree colder weather.

How about not letting the Windows guy with his app pre-loaded and ready to go pick the task? Maybe pull from a bowl of 100 or choices. I realize it’s a commercial, but, seriously?

Dsfasdf

I tested a Windows Phone and was impressed with it. At least it’s not an iPhone.

Josh Groff

I like the UI, reminds me of my Zune HD. That being said, I wouldn’t buy one as a contract upgrade.

Skytile

Right. This is almost exactly what happened when I won (or tied, which counted as winning in the rules) for a post a photo to facebook competition. They didn’t tell me all the rules beforehand, apparently, so I didn’t know that when I was done, I had to put my phone back on the starting podium. It’s pure bull, first off, that they don’t have the rules to each challenge written down, since they have three pages worth of general rules overall. They change rules once you compete so that you don’t win, because at the end of the week, they want to be able to say that nobody beat their Windows Phones.

Droidzilla

WP7 – The “special” child in the room. Don’t make fun of his market-share; he’s handicapped!

Lilkerv90210

it would be cool if they won fairly. Microsoft put the common user up against someone who is obviously paid to know how to use their phones in everyway. Definitely a good challenge

Tim Swann

the rematch should be with a phone that gets activated in front of him and is simply a random task pulled out of a bag. This way neither can prepare…I still think the G-Nex wins!

Benjamin Mackie

Im glad they made good on it

http://twitter.com/baedert baedert

Dear Microsoft, no one will by Windows Phone. Please stop it now.
Sincerely the world.

The funny part is it can be either a grammar error or a typo, so you should still learn proper grammar.

Guest

Grammatical error

nwd1911

Dear Grammar Nazis, why are you harshing on baedert’s mellow? Perhaps you could learn something from rals or Droidzilla who can point something out without being dicks…hell, even make it funnier (that’s you Droidzilla). You have taken away part of my enjoyment from his funny comment. Congrats.

LiterofCola

Dear nwd1911,

You’re welcome.

Quit Whining.

Aw, poor baby’s fun was ruined?

Joelseph

I only clicked like because there was no love button.

http://twitter.com/davidbavin David Bavin

I’m buying a Windows phone…. The problem with stupid Android is that it lags after just two months of usage.

user311

Way to respond to an 8 month old post. Though I guess it relates to how late to the show MS is.

http://twitter.com/davidbavin David Bavin

No there was an article on WP yesterday and a link to this. WP7 sucks but WP8 is quite good. People need to give it a chance. It is very, very smooth.

fanTom007

SimplyBackfired

Droidzilla

This. The real challenge would be to hand the phones to two, ordinary users and see who does what faster (or have someone using an Android/iPhone/BB who has practised like crazy for specific tasks that their OS does really quickly, and then challenge the WP against those tasks).

The entire thing is a publicity stunt pure and simple, and the fact that someone actually won means even a rigged test backfired on WP7.

Mike

yup. I think Kellen should take his GNex to his local WinMo store and post the results.

Josh Groff

I would love to see that

jjrudey

This story has really been blowing up. There was a tweet from Ben the PC guy or whatever apologizing and offering a rematch on a random challenge though.

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